Frank T. Bell

Frank T. Bell (September 21, 1883 – October 6, 1970) led the United States Bureau of Fisheries as the eighth and last United States Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries. He served in the position from 1933 to 1939. As commissioner, he had success in making the Bureau more efficient and in increasing cooperation on fishery issues among United States government agencies and between them and U.S. state governments.

Early and personal life

Franklin Thomas Bell was born in Joplin, Missouri, on September 21, 1883, the fifth of the 11 children of William Layfette Bell and Amie Lee Bell née Farrar. He later moved to the State of Washington, where he married Bertha May Hill, a native of Ephrata, Washington, in Douglas, Washington, on December 22, 1908.

Political activities

While residing in his wife's home town of Ephrata, Bell became involved in local politics in the Democratic Party.

At a meeting of fish and game departments from throughout the United States that Bell called in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 23, 1934, participants formed the National Planning Council of Commercial and Game Fish Commissioners, a first-of-its-kind organization intended to avoid the long-existing duplication of effort between the Bureau of Fisheries and the fish and game departments of the U.S. states. The diversity of issues in different regions of the country prevented the new council from achieving its original goal of developing a single fishery program for the entire United States, but the council did establish five zones, with each zone overseen by a chairman. At its fourth annual meeting on April 28, 1938, the council abolished the original five zones, which had proven too large and unwieldy, and replaced them with 11 new, smaller zones that were more convenient for the states.

On March 19, 1935, the Bureau of Fisheries under Bell's leadership entered into an agreement with the United States Forest Service and the United States Department of Agriculture′s Bureau of Biological Survey to coordinate the stream improvement activities of the Bureau of Fisheries and Forest Service and ensure their compatibility with game requirements in forested areas determined by the Biological Survey. The American Fisheries Society elected Bell as its president for a one-year term in the final session of its annual convention on September 11, 1935.

A conference in Washington, D.C. in 1927 to address issues related to the American shad fishery had resulted in little more than indifference and inaction, so Bell called the first Atlantic States shad conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on February 6, 1937, to revitalize the effort by considering ways of restoring and developing the fishery. Attended by the chairman of the United States House Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries, Congressman S. Otis Bland of Virginia, and representatives of the Bureau of Fisheries and of representatives of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia, including the commissioners of the National Planning Council of Commercial and Game Fish Commissioners from those states, the conference discussed the biology and propagation of the American shad, regulation of the American shad harvest, and obstructions and pollution affecting the American shad population, and recommended the establishment of a permanent Atlantic Coast Shad Conservation Council as well as increased Bureau of Fisheries scientific investigation of the fishery. During the meeting, the Bureau of Fisheries impressed upon TVA officials that their plans to convert free-flowing streams with clear water into artificial lakes characterized by still water probably would destroy the freshwater mussel population, greatly reduce populations of buffalo fish, carp, catfish, paddlefish, freshwater drum (also known as sheepshead), sturgeon, suckers, and other bottom-feeders, and at least make survival more difficult for species better adapted to still water, such as bass, crappie, pike-perch, and sunfish, all with a potential impact on the local economy, which relied in part on fishing. The Fisheries Service Bulletin listed the following as the Bureau's achievements under Bell's leadership:

In Alaska, where the Bureau had jurisdiction over fisheries, the salmon fishery produced a yearly high of 8,437,603 cases of fish in 1936 and averaged 6,500,000 cases annually. In the Pribilof Islands, where the Bureau was responsible for managing the fur seal herd as well as the welfare of the local Aleut community, the fur seal herd increased by nearly 30 percent, from 1,318,516 to 1,872,438 animals, and 300,000 seal skins were taken in the islands and sold on the Bureau's account. Early in his tenure, Bell oversaw the closure of unproductive fish hatcheries as well as the expansion of the Bureau's fish-culture work through the construction or acquisition of 20 new hatcheries. The changes resulted in an all-time annual production record of 8,120,000,000 fish in 1936, exceeding the previous record by well over a billion fish. Bell expanded the Bureau's scientific endeavors by instituting investigations of the haddock fishery in the North Atlantic Ocean, the shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Mexico, the American shad fishery along the United States East Coast, and the pilchard fishery – the largest U.S. fishery – along the United States West Coast. Bell oversaw an increased role for the Bureau in conservation of the salmon fishery of the Columbia River and fishery management in streams in national forest areas. Under Bell's leadership, the Bureau took a role in supporting oyster farmers and harvesters along the U.S. East and West Coasts, providing them with scientific assistance in dealing with pests and predators and instruction in improving farming methods. The Bureau played an instrumental role in regulating whaling on the high seas under the terms of the 1937 International Agreement for the Regulation of Whaling. In 1938, the Bureau created the Fishery Market News Service, which supported the U.S. commercial fishing industry by collecting and circulating information from widely scattered fisheries centers around the United States on fishery production, receipts, supply and demand, market prices, cold storage holdings, and imports and exports. Bell championed cooperation between U.S. Government agencies and between the U.S. Government and state agencies to reduce duplication of effort and encourage broader views of environmental systems that allowed better preservation of management of fishery resources. The creation of the National Planning Council of Commercial and Game Fish Commissioners and the Bureau's work with the Tennessee Valley Authority were particularly notable examples of his approach, and he also led the Bureau in developing cooperative efforts with the National Park Service and Farm Security Administration.

Bell's travels on inspection tours of Bureau of Fisheries facilities took him throughout the continental United States and to the Territory of Alaska, and included visits to the Pribilof Islands and the Territory of Hawaii.

Bell's last official action as commissioner was the creation of a hatchery school to instruct Bureau of Fisheries superintendents and employees in the latest fish-culture techniques. By early 1939, the facility for the first unit of this school was under construction at Leetown, West Virginia.

Later activities

Bell remained politically active after his departure from the Bureau of Fisheries. He was an alternate delegate from Washington to both the 1948 and 1952 Democratic National Conventions.

Death

Bell died at Ehprata on October 6, 1970. He was buried at Ephrata Cemetery.